A GOOD AGE: Checking in with the man who was Quincy's 'Dancing Cop'

In his day, Quincy police officer William P. Draicchio was a local legend, known to South Shore commuters for his choreographed movements. He would spin on his heels, arms flying in the air, as he directed traffic and helped schoolchildren cross the street at Routes 53 and 3A. What's he doing nowadays?

I didn’t recognize the white-haired man coming down the hall. Using a walker, he had a slow gait and a bit of a tremor. Later I saw him sitting in the dining room with his daughter, talking, occasionally throwing back his head and laughing. He had a wonderful smile. His daughter helped him with his meals.

One day, I offered him the newspaper and he eagerly took it. It turns out he has been in that newspaper – this one, The Ledger – a number of times. This was Quincy’s original “Dancing Cop,” William P. Draicchio.

In his day, he was a local legend, known to South Shore commuters for his choreographed movements. He would spin on his heels, arms flying in the air, as he directed traffic and helped schoolchildren cross the street at Routes 53 and 3A. It was one busiest intersections in the city, the state, or the East, depending on which story you read.

Draicchio is 88 now. Several years ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was able to continue living at home, getting out to socialize, until an infection landed him in the hospital and then in rehab at the Hancock Park Skilled Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Quincy. That’s where I spoke with him and his daughter Michele Paige.

“I had a lot of fun with the kids,” Draicchio said of his heyday. “I knew all the kids and I talked to them all the time.”

All the old Patriot Ledger news clips agreed.

“Officer Bill” loved putting on a show and showed great concern for the kids as he shepherded them on their way to and from three schools in the area. When he retired in 1989, he had been at that intersection for 36 of his 38 years on the police force.

In 1977, the first year from which I found a story, a headline praised “The faithful man in blue.” Drivers gave “a pat on the back to the Lawrence Welk of the traffic division,” the story said.

Patriot Ledger photographers had a field day.

Other stories followed. A 1981 story with the headline “Officer Bill stands test of time” noted his grace and longevity.

When he retired in 1989, the headline was “Thousands will miss Officer Bill.”

In 1990, the city council honored him for his 38 years of service as a police officer, and in 2001, the intersection was named after him. You can see the street sign there today.

A couple of good stories go with the legend. One day he “commandeered” a car so he could chase down a driver who had refused to stop at the crosswalk. Then there was the time he directed a boy to walk over the hood of a car that had stopped in the crosswalk and whose driver had refused to back up.

Page 2 of 2 - There was no bucking Officer Bill, despite his good-natured grin and infectious spirit.

One of the pleasures of age is how the past can come back to surprise and entertain you. This all began when one of the Hancock Park nurses, Michelle Manning, on the rehab floor, brought in a 2011 Santa Claus Network newsletter containing a feature about Draicchio. Written by his grandson Kristopher Kamborian, it described Draicchio’s collection of Possible Dreams Santa figurines (more than 100) and Kamborian’s pride in his grandfather’s long career.

Before joining the police force, Draicchio served in the Marines (1943-46, 1950-51) in World War II and Korea. He also worked at Remick’s Department Store from 1943 to 1983, first as a salesman (he loved to dress with style) and then as night manager.

After he retired, he worked for 19 years – from 1990 to 2009 – in the city clerk’s office at Quincy City Hall. He was known as the candy man for giving out sweets from the 60 jars of candy he kept there. Draicchio remains the city’s registrar of voters.

He has four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

I don’t know what’s next for Officer Bill, but there have to be a lot of people who also remember him and wish him well.